AtomicGirl

@greendragonhq @EricLDaugh Unfortunately these folks only get their news from propaganda outlets. They swim in a sea of misinformation.

@EricLDaugh Only in America is the minority party blamed for the shortcomings of the party in control. Republicans are braindead.

🚨 BREAKING: Americans are waking up and the Democrats are FURIOUS Traveler in TSA line: "The Democrats are using leverage to try to CONTROL the conduct of ICE instead of worrying about paying these poor TSA agents who have mortgages and house pay and all sorts of car payments!" "This is TERRIBLE what they're doing to American traveler, but it's even worse what they're doing to the TSA worker!" Q: "President Trump said that he will sign an emergency order to immediately pay TSA agents. What are your thoughts on that?" TRAVELER: "I think that's great. These are people who are really keeping us safe. It's wonderful. They do a great job. They deserve to be paid!" 🇺🇸

@cturnbull1968 Yes. They willfully killed people by gutting USAID to steal the funding.

They gutted USAID just so they could steal the funds. Sickening

@SketchesbyBoze @jakonrath The only novel of his that I've read was mostly torture porn, so maybe the real world is creeping into his market too much.

@jakonrath If you really think this, you’re exceptionally gullible.

THE NOVEL IS DEAD. FICTION WRITERS FACE EXTINCTION. Get ready. This is going to hurt. Making up words for a living faces three challenges that it will not be able to overcome, and anyone calling themselves a fulltime author might need a side gig very soon. This isn't exaggeration, and I am pretty upset. Here are three points that prove we're charging downhill (and maybe what authors can do to hang on...) 1. READERSHIP IS DWINDLING In the US, fiction reading has steadily declined 3% per year since 2003 despite a population increase of more than 60 million people. The older generation--who are the largest percentage of the population that read for leisure--is dying at a rate of three million people per year. The younger generation isn't reading as much fiction as their parents, who aren't reading as much fiction as their parents. The number of bookstores that sell new fiction is declining, and the number of big box stores that sell fiction are seeing their paperback racks get smaller, or disappear completely. This trend cannot be reversed, unless a zombie virus hits and we can resurrect 25 million Boomers. And Borders. I miss Borders and Waldenbooks a lot. 2. AI BOOKS ARE JUST GETTING STARTED A week ago, the buzz was about an author who allegedly used AI to write her horror novel, which was acquired by a large publisher, Hachette. Hachette later cancelled the book release after an internal investigation. Everyone is talking about the ethics of using AI to write, but they are missing the elephant in the room: AI wrote well enough to land a major publishing deal. LLMs illegally trained on over 500k professionally written books (including 80 of mine), and now AI can is so good it can fool publishers. Anyone can now use AI to write books and pump out dozens a year in the style of bestselling authors. Between 2023 and 2024 there was a 3.5% increase in the number of self-published books according to Bowker ISBNs, with the overall total being 2,545,885. Between 2024 and 2025 there was a 38.7% increase, raising the total to 3,529,980. Do ya think maybe that's AI-related? And ya think that number will get higher or lower? Ya scared yet? 3. NEW TECHNOLOGY IS MONOPOLIZING LEISURE TIME You're reading this post on X. Why isn't your nose buried in a novel right now? Sure, maybe you have a Kindle app on your cell. Or maybe you curl up at night with a paperback. But you surely know people are using their free time differently than they were in 2005. I used to go to the park, or go on public transportation, and see people reading. Now I see cell phones everywhere. Maybe some are reading fiction, but most are on social media, texting, streaming, shopping, surfing. Less than 5% are reading fiction. Beyond cell phones we have PC and console gaming, streaming professional and amateur media, being online; all things that take up leisure time that used to be spent devouring novels. Attention spans since 2004 have more than halved. It is difficult to get people to read a five minute X post. Getting them to read a 10 hour novel is becoming impossible. In 2012, 64% of parents read to their children. That number is now 41%. I could keep spouting more statistics, but I am officially freaking out. How about you? WHO WILL SURVIVE? We're in a shrinking market that is about to be annihilated by AI. The demand is going way down, and the supply is going way up. You don't have to be an economist to know what this means. Authors with large book releases by big publishers, authors who have huge followings, and authors who have movie/TV tie-ins will be able to make a living. Occasional "Next Big Thing" authors will go viral and sell tons of books. You can try to become one of those, but it won't be easy. Getting enough sales to pay a few bills is very hard and rare. Selling a million books in a year is becoming next to impossible. WHAT CAN WRITERS DO? Let me preface this part by saying: I don't like any of the points I'm going to make. But I'm trying to be as realistic as possible, even though it kills me. DIVERSIFY You can make money as a writer in other ways, not just through book sales. You can build your social media following and monetize it. You can try to gain the attention of Hollywood. I haven't tried Wattpad, Substack, or Patreon, but other authors seem to be using these with some degree of success. You can invent some new way for fiction to become relevant in an increasingly indifferent world. I know that you didn't become a fiction writer to devote your time to any of the above. And let's be brutally honest; doing any of these things is just as difficult as succeeding as a novelist. But I'm spitballing here because we are screwed. FIGURE OUT ADVERTISING I've posted and blogged about my experience with ads, and how my noble and expensive efforts have at best broke even. But many authors claim they have used ads to make money, and ads are ubiquitous, so maybe there is something there. It's a gamble, and a time suck, but it may help bail out a sinking ship. I know you probably dreamed of being a novelist, but had no aspirations to become an advertiser. I hear you, and I agree. But this leads me to the uncomfortable realization that survival may depend on going to the Dark Side and... EMBRACING AI If you are a pro writer, you have huge advantages over some newbie AI prompter. You should already understand story, characterization, rising action, conflict, and good writing. You can let some kids flood the market with AI slop, or you can start putting out work that is AI-assisted and less sloppy. I don't do this. I can't see myself doing this. I hate this. But it makes sense, doesn't it? Does anyone else see an alternative? CONCLUSION I don't want to think of myself as a buggy whip manufacturer in 1908, the year Henry Ford rolled out the Model T. But the parallel exists. Fiction writing could go the way of the horse and buggy. This is scary. And I have no good answers. It was a pretty good run, though...

@TimHannan Nailed it.

Because the right wing in America is basically a propaganda circle jerk.

@DudeAdhd This attitude, which was pervasive for autism spectrum disorders in the early '00s, cost us years of early potentially helpful interventions with our oldest.

This doctor is a disgrace.

@stacycay @JoJoFromJerz This has Hillary Clinton’s finger prints all over it.

@JoJoFromJerz Joe Biden I think

Then why my is gas $4.50 a gallon?

@DrNeilStone That’s not what’s happening.

Shockingly, a huge percentage of the West is rooting for the regime. 🙁

@PoliUnLimited @anyonewantchips And my point is that had she allowed the trial these questions would be answered. She chose to shield him because she said a trial would be unfair to him.

@atomic_mum @anyonewantchips You mean the judge who oversaw the trial thay occurred found the charges without merit? Because thats what happened.

You’d think Jack Smith’s memo (that Pam Bondi inadvertently released) finding that Trump stole & kept 100s of classified docs after leaving office to enrich himself - would be more than a blip in the news cycle.

@PoliUnLimited @anyonewantchips There wasn’t. He was shielded from proper scrutiny by Cannon.

@atomic_mum @anyonewantchips There was a trial and it is over now.

@RawbertBeef I agree. I always believed in that separation, but I’ve had to reflect on the limits of it in recent years, and I think you nail it here.

I fully believe “separate the art from the artist” is only applicable when said artist is either dead or financially removed from their art. You can’t act neutral when you’re literally lining their pockets by supporting their work.

@carlosecarlos04 @anyonewantchips Pam Bondi, apparently.

@anyonewantchips Amazing how coordinated this smear is… Who is behind this coordinated attack?

@PoliUnLimited @anyonewantchips You know what would have helped clarify the difference? A trial.

@anyonewantchips It's a bs charge, one that has never been applied to any other pres including Biden who stole docs as a Senator. The claim Trump did this to "enrich" himself is laughable. Smith's case fell apart for quite a few reasons, not least the improper means by which he was appointed.

@Publius215 @anyonewantchips It’s absolutely nothing like that. That’s such a poor attempt to excuse treason that I can’t even give you a participation trophy.

@anyonewantchips It’s like charging an undercover cop for solicitation of prostitution. Plenary power over classification was his. How absurd a legal theory. Why don’t you try beating him instead of arresting him on invented claims

@jscottwagner @2RawTooReal The first ones I saw in the US were in an IKEA in Portland last year. Americans figured it out just fine. We can do it. We just need fewer bad actors stoking fears about imaginary scenarios that would be equally likely in any back aisle of the store.

@atomic_mum @2RawTooReal Common elsewhere in the world. They don’t solve all problems, and they create a few, but on balance imo they’re much better for women. Americans have potty hangups. Unaccountably an outgrowth of our twist on Judeo-Christianity.

What’s your thoughts on genderless restrooms 🚽 I personally don’t see the problem

@gabriellf2181 Why do conservative women insist on siding with men who name themselves things like poopypantsgroyper just to troll for hate clicks over smart, liberal women making thoughtful commentary?

Why do progressive women have the habit of biting the hand that helps them?

@ClaudetteGGibs1 Did he stop? I'm pretty sure he never stopped.

Is Pete Hegseth back on the devils juice?

@BasedMikeLee So, it's just about you guys openly cheating to win without backing down from your gawd-awful, deeply unpopular political behavior? Fuck democracy, and the needs of your constituents as long as Mike Lee and his buddies stay in power?

If we don’t pass SAVE America, Democrats win in November If we pass SAVE America, we have a chance Failure is not an option

@SassyMetisChick Yes, sometimes for awkwardly long periods of time.

I’m Canadian. Canada would implode if I didn’t.

@StefFeldman People died of treatable conditions because they lost a job and had to pretend they didn't need treatment for months or years in order to get new treatments covered after they had new insurance from a new job.

For the kids who are too young to remember, you used to be unable to buy comprehensive health insurance on your own if you had depression, acne, diabetes, or obesity. It wasn't just expensive; you couldn't buy it all!